to go beyond the limits of ourselves: the job of the novelist

To go beyond the limits of our selves, to perceive everyone and everything as a great whole, to identify with as many people as possible, to see as much as possible: in this way, the novelist comes to resemble those ancient Chinese painters who climbed mountain peaks in order to capture the poetry of vast landscapes.  — Orhan Pamuk, The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist